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Comment by SllX | Hacker News Reader

That land will get repurposed organically when electric cars overtake ICE cars and the demand for corn-derived ethanol drops.

Hopefully for something that tastes better than corn.

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Bunch of farmers woke me up at 04:25 this morning with a drive-slow horn-honking parade past my apartment.

If I understand right, this protest was in part due to an attempt by the (German) government to reduce the level at which farmers are being subsidised.

Reason I bring this up, is that I have heard that the US only started using corn ethanol as an excuse to keep subsidising farmers, not because it was ever a good idea.

You see similar things in California, billboards posted by farmers wailing about the state government raising water prices, when they are the ones subsidizing (to the nth degree) agricultural water to begin with.

Yes and:

Blaming govt for water shortage despite new proactive policies like paying farmers to let fields flood (to replenish acquifiers).

No good deed goes unpunished.

I can absolutely believe that the Federal government did it for that reason, but I think it was my own State (California) that gave them the political cover because our dumbasses thought it was a genuinely good idea 20 years ago and we mandated ethanol in gasoline first (California has corn farms, but we are not a big corn-growing State so much as a big almost-everything-else-growing State).

Ethanol is better than what it replaced, MTBE, hence California’s mandate. The problem was when the ag lobby started advocating for ethanol blends in excess of what is necessary to capture more subsidies.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180407183020/https://www.arb.c...

https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/MTBE_FactSheet.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_tert-butyl_ether

Govts can continue to subsidies farmers, harvest sunlight with solar panels and and get paid. Its a lot better than harvesting sunlight with plants, instead of farming 2 times/year, a solar panel will produce for 25+ years.

Ethanol is a great way to boost octane though.

Well - they have "no more money" for tax-break, but they have the money to double the War budget for Ukraine from €4 billion to €8 billion. I can understand why the German farmers are unhappy.

Hopefully for something that need also to drink less than corn!

I’m not picky, I just don’t like corn very much.

Have you tried corn grilled with a little bit of salt and butter?

Or even elote! ^_^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_on_the_cob#Elote

I am very familiar with corn, and the many ways it can be prepared. My taste for corn goes as far as corn chips and corn tortillas and no further.

Only fresh from the land. Once you've tasted that you'll never want any other corn.

not even cornbread or corn chips? I'm aghast over here.

I answered elsewhere corn chips and corn tortillas only (excluding supermarket tortillas anyway, those suck too). I’m not immune to tacos, enchiladas or guacamole and salsa delivery mechanisms.

There is however a special place in hell for the first person to come up with cornbread and serve it to another human being. No redeemable qualities. I’m not even sure if I would call it bread or food for that matter.

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